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Farm Bureau warns that climate treaty will hurt farmers
The Clinton administration's climate change proposal will restrict farming practices, disrupt livestock and crop production and increase farm energy costs, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
"The bottom line is that we must have more information and valid, peer-reviewed scientific research, before we make major policy decisions that will define the very structure of U.S. agriculture in the future," said AFBF President Dean Kleckner.
He told a House oversight committee that farmers are already reducing greenhouse emissions and attempting to cut costly energy use but added, "We are concerned that the administration's climate change policy poses some very serious threats to our ability to produce and our ability to stay in farming."
Kleckner said, "For agriculture, we could see new taxes on fuel and fertilizer; forced mileage requirements for light trucks and other motor vehicles; control on planting, cultivation and harvesting practices; and limits on the number of livestock per acre."
Kleckner posed several questions to the committee, asking: "What happens if these type of regulations interfere with farm management plans which have been designed to reduce soil erosion? What happens if prescriptive cropping practices designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are not compatible with crop rotations or integrated pest management programs? These are legitimate questions -- we need some answers."
He said fuel and energy cost increases resulting from the Kyoto agreement could deal farmers an especially heavy blow. An increase of 50 percent or more is possible. The Commerce Department has agreed that capping carbon dioxide emissions at 1990 levels could require the equivalent of a 25-cent-per-gallon gas tax. Even at these levels, it would impose a big hardship on farm families.
Farm Bureau made several recommendations regarding the Kyoto protocol and future international climate negotiations:
There must be a full and informed public debate that involves agriculture and agricultural policy makers; the administration should not sign the Kyoto protocol because of its potential harm to U.S. farmers and because it violates the key principles of the Byrd-Hagel resolution; if the Kyoto protocol is signed by the administration, it should be submitted immediately to the Senate for ratification; Congress is urged to be vigilant in opposing efforts by the administration to implement the treaty through rules, regulations or other means; and the administration should withdraw support for legally binding and enforceable caps on greenhouse gases and renew its support for voluntary emission reductions as prescribed by the 1992 Rio Summit.
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